Food Photography tips
I’m no expert but I’ve dabbled in some food photography and I really love it. I’m hoping to do more in the coming months. As with all photography genres, there are a lot of different approaches and styles to food photos. The aim of course is always the same - make people want to eat it!
I’m not big into a lot of the tricks you hear about when it comes to photographing food (I actually like to eat a lot of what I shoot), but I’ve learned a few things:
1. Plan your shots. I even sketch out a few shots sometimes and list what items I’ll use with each. This ensures that you have something to work with immediately when the food is ready. You’ll find other shots as you work, so don’t be bound to your plans, but they can be a good starting point.
2. Think of garnishes in advance. Maybe a lemon with prawns, some chilis on the side of a spicy dish, a few chives on top of a baked potato. Starting out, you are the stylist as well as the photographer, and styling is a key part to your photo looking good.
3. Think about colours. If you have a bowl of tomato soup, what colour placemat would look great with that? A complimentary green? Another shade of red to really set off the white bowl? This is all part of the planning as well.
4. Use natural light as much as possible. Preferably entirely natural light.
5. Get in close. This is a personal preference, but I like to get in really close.
6. Get the shoot area setup and ready before any of the cooking starts since you’ll want to quickly go from the kitchen to the photo area and start snapping.
7. Don’t cook the food 100% through - especially with vegetables. Sometimes even raw is best.
8. Food typically looks good from about a 30 degree angle. Sometimes directly overhead works great, but not often.
9. Bulk up.To save some of the food, put some paper towels or a smaller bowl inside a bowl and then the food on top of that to “bulk it up”.
10. Bounce! If you have a bit of white Styrofoam lying around (maybe from a package or something), use this in front of the food dish to bounce a little natural light back. It’s subtle, but makes a big difference on the food. (This I learned from the wonderful Still Life With… on Bounce Basics)
11. Spend time looking at foodie mags and food photographer’s work. There is always so much to learn.
Now, I know I’ve mentioned how important natural light is (#4), but sometimes there is just no light to work with and a deadline to meet. On those occasions I’ve made use of a lightbox, which my husband made for me, along with the Styrofoam for bouncing. For Christmas I got a fantastic umbrella which I have yet to test out, and I have recently fallen for the Lowel EGO Lights. Steamy Kitchen shows the difference they can make in a food shoot.
I really am a newbie at all of this with so much still to learn. I would highly recommend the following blogs to anyone interested in learning more:
There are so many resources out there about food photography, and so many foodie blogs and food photographers to follow. If you are keen on trying your hand at food photography, practice, practice, practice! And there is no excuse either - everyday just shoot some of the foods you eat and go from there.
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